An electronic device (such as a mobile telephone, for example) may provide a graphical user interface having a hierarchical menu system. The hierarchical menu system may comprise a number of different ‘layers’. Each graphical item in a first layer of the hierarchical menu has one or more associated graphical items in the second layer of the hierarchical menu system.
Consider an example in which an electronic device presents a first set of graphical items from the first layer of a hierarchical menu system. The user may enter the second layer by selecting a first graphical item (for example, relating to “messaging”) from the presented first set of graphical items. Selection of the first graphical item results in a second set of graphical items (for instance, relating to an “inbox”, “sent items” and “message creation”), from the second layer of the hierarchical menu system, being presented to the user. Each of graphical items from the second set is associated with the selected first graphical item.
If the user does not find the graphical item he is searching for (for example, “message settings”) within the presented second set of graphical items, he may have to return to the first layer of the menu system and then enter a different section of the second layer of the menu system to find the desired graphical item. For example, he may be required to return to the first layer of menu system and select an alternative graphical item from the first layer (for instance, “general settings”), in order for the electronic device to present him with the desired graphical item from the second layer of the menu system (for example, “message settings”).
This process can be frustrating for a user.